Snacks based upon fruit compositions have enjoyed increased popularity recently. Popular shapes include fruit leathers, e.g., Fruit Corners brand fruit rollups. Also popular are similar compositions but in bar form, for example, Fruit Corners brand fruit bars. Still another popular form of fruit compositions are in individual bite size pieces such as Fruit Corners brand fruit bits.
While popular, consumers especially children have come to expect as well as to desire new and interesting fruit based snack compositions. To this end, for example, fruit bars have been fabricated with intermediate regions or portions of a creamy nougat material comprising sugars and shortening, see for example, Fruit Corners Fruit Swirls brand fruit bars. Such products are characterized by not only a visual contrast between the fruit phase and nougat phase portions of the product but also by modest textural differences between the portions.
While the small textural differences between the fruit portion and the solid, creamy flavored nougat portions are desirable, a more pronounced difference in texture or "dual texture" would be even more desirable. For example, it would be desirable to fabricate a food article having a first solid portion and a second liquid portion. An example of a product of this type is a filled chocolate, i.e., having a chocolate coating of a high fat material (greater than 30%). However, provision of food articles having dissimilar phases is quite difficult to achieve in practice. Food product stability problems complicate the provision of dual textured food products. One problem, especially for fruit products, is microbial stability. Another problem can be emulsion stability. Still another problem is structural stability, i.e., maintaining the texture differences between the different portions over time.
A natural tendency is the migration of materials from one portion to the other at their interface due to gradients created by differences in concentration of moisture, sugars, and other soluble materials. While fruit based food articles can be fabricated which are initially characterized by dual portions of dual texture, such composite articles tend to experience fairly rapid deterioration or structural instability over time due to the intermigration between the portions. Center filled fruit products, for example, using known methods experience a softening of the shell and gradual disappearance of the interior.
One common approach to increase stability generally is to maintain the articles at frozen temperatures. However, not all articles are suitable for frozen storage or for consumption at frozen temperatures. Another technique for structural stability is to have an edible barrier intermediate the two regions. Frequently employed as edible barriers are solid fats, e.g., compound fats, fats tend to repel water, and because moisture migration between compositionally dissimilar portions is one of the most troublesome types of structural instability. A variety of problems exist with regard to having a fat based intermediate barrier. For example, in order to assure complete segregation between the dissimilar regions, it has been previously thought that the fat based layer must be relatively thick. Still another problem is that such fat barriers tend to deteriorate over time due to the development of microfissures which can be aggravated by repeated temperature cycling. Still another problem with fat based barriers is that such fats upon consumption frequently exhibit an undesirably waxy chew or waxy mouthfeel. Finally, high fat levels are inconsistent with the perception of wholesomeness in some food products.
Also known for use are a wide variety of nonfat based barrier materials. Frequently these barriers are based upon shellac or employ blends or even complex copolymers of shellac. While useful, practical utilization of these materials in the present, mass produced fruit snack food items has not yet been achieved.
The present invention provides composite food articles having distinctly dissimilar regions or portions characterized in part by marked texture differences between the portions. The present invention thus provides a dramatic improvement in fruit snack products. More specifically, the present invention provides articles having a first portion based on a fruit leather and a second portion which is perceived as fluid or juicy. The present invention, however, surprisingly overcomes the problems of the structural instability over time between two dissimilar portions. In the most preferred embodiment, the second fluid portion essentially comprises a water in oil emulsion ("w/o") characterized by surprisingly low levels of a continuous oil phase based upon a liquid oil but wherein the liquid oil contains sufficient amounts of an oil gelling agent so as to form an oil gel. The preferred fluid emulsion portion further comprises a major amount of a discontinuous aqueous phase. The aqueous phase is also characterized by high levels of water soluble solids. Such composite food articles provide the advantages of markedly different textures between the two portions. Notwithstanding these differences, the articles exhibit surprising extended structural stability.
Throughout the specification and claims percentages are by weight and temperatures by degrees Fahrenheit, unless otherwise indicated.